Bringing a bad name to vaping.

[euforeik]

I am a freshly graduated high school student. I am of legal age to smoke (18) and I vape and so do my friends that are at least 18. Pretty much all of us do it for the same reason everyone else switches to an e-cigarette, to get off analogs. I have gotten my dad to switch to vaping and I am getting my girlfriend to switch to vaping. But here is the real reason I am writing this. I hear from a lot of my friends that there are underage kids 14-16 trying to get e-cigarettes. It made me upset when i heard about it. The state I live in (California) is already trying to ban the use of e-cigs and these kids using them to "be cool" is only going to solidify their decision. Do any other members on this forum know of this issue with underage vaping?

 

[hvac999]

I agree with the over 18 vaping. I didn't know there was that much of a problem with underage vaping. I hope not, I agree with you that it gives vaping a bad name.

 

[Baditude]

No one here on this forum will agree with any underage usage of electronic cigarette devices, no different than how they feel about underage cigarette smoking.

However, when one looks at the real world, how many past or current smokers got started when they were teenagers? Not saying it's right, but facts are facts. Kids will do what they can get away with. It requires responsible parenting to try to keep teens from starting the bad habit of smoking. The first step is for parents to look at themselves; are they smokers? Pretty useless to tell a teen to do as I say and not as I do.

I'm not saying vaping should be allowed to underage teens, but which is the greater evil here? Smoking or e-cigarettes? And what about 0-nicotine e-cigarettes? Could those have a place in the mix sometime in the future?
__

My daughter recently turned 18. She doesn't smoke, but many of her friends and her older brother do. She had always taken an active interest in my success in stopping smoking with the use of e-cigarettes. I would occassionally even allow her to taste new flavors that I would acquire. Nothing more.

She asked for her own mod for her birthday. I was concerned that because of friends' influences and the peer pressures that older teens have that she could experiment with smoking herself. I'd rather that not happen, and a lecture on the dangers of smoking would fall on deaf ears at her age.

So why not get her a mod? And have her use 0-nicotine, flavored e-juice? Now her friends have been exposed to vaping as a safer alternative to smoking, and on their own some of them got their own eGo setups and are now vaping instead of smoking. Can't this be considered a positive?

 

[Bookworm]

I don't know how widespread it is, but I'm sure it is happening in some cases. But underage kids are smoking cigarettes, too. I started experimenting with cigarettes by age 12, and smoked a pack a day by the time I was 16. Underage vaping hurts us all and encourages more bans/regulations, but I sure wish I had the option when I was younger. Maybe I wouldn't have smoked for so many years.

 

[liveone]

Those damn kids are always in a hurry to do adult things. Whether it's drinking, driving, having sex, smoking or vaping. I just hope they don't try to make having sex illegal.

 

[john333]

Lets not forget. Kids that age are also trying to drink, smoke %@$ , have sex, etc. etc. etc. What gives vaping a bad name is misinformation and poor judgement in law making.

 

[jcco]

There has been more & more of hints like this popping up lately on ECF.
It appears that there is a trend which means it must be cool now to vape. It is very disturbing for many reasons.

 

[RosaJ]

I will tell you what I have noticed on these boards: The jumping to the conclusion that whomever posts as a non-smoker taking up vaping is automatically a minor.

Erase that from your psyche altogether!

Even after the OP posts his age, in his 30's, even older, the diatribe continues...

 

[evan le'garde]

I'm not sure how it is in the usa but in england it's only illegal to "sell" these products to minors. So if someone underage is seen using one then that's not entirely illegal. If a shop owner is found to be selling to under age persons then they would be liable to prosecution. Some sites that sell vaping products make it very clear that they won't sell vaping products to people under the age of 18. So as long as they do that then they will not be liable for any sales to people that lie about their age. I started smoking when i was 12 but i would have preferred an e cig. Anybody that is under the age of 18 and is vaping is doing it for the same reason i vape, although not everyone's the same so i expect there are a few that do it to be cool but not all of them !. But to get back to the legality of vaping there is no legal age to use a vapouriser, not in england anyway. The thing you should be concerned with is "where did they get it from, who sold it to under age kids ?". That's the only thing you should be worried about as far as any ban is concerned. It will be the sale of vaping equipment that will be banned first and foremost for obvious reasons.

 

[RosaJ]

I am a freshly graduated high school student. I am of legal age to smoke (18) and I vape and so do my friends that are at least 18. Pretty much all of us do it for the same reason everyone else switches to an e-cigarette, to get off analogs. I have gotten my dad to switch to vaping and I am getting my girlfriend to switch to vaping. But here is the real reason I am writing this. I hear from a lot of my friends that there are underage kids 14-16 trying to get e-cigarettes. It made me upset when i heard about it. The state I live in (California) is already trying to ban the use of e-cigs and these kids using them to "be cool" is only going to solidify their decision. Do any other members on this forum know of this issue with underage vaping?

I congratulate you on switching to vaping! You mention you're 18 and so are your friends who have taken up vaping. When did you start smoking cigarettes? Chances are you were a minor when you did, right? So how did you get the cigarettes? Did stores sell them to you? Did you have a fake id? Please don't take this as an attack on you.

All the vendors that I've ever purchased from have always insisted on not selling ecigs to minors. I did come across a 17 year old smoker who came into the vape shop I frequent with his mother and his mother bought him a starter set up. I see nothing wrong with that as the young man was heavily into smoking and his mother wanted something better for his health. What is wrong with that?

 

[soba1]

Also I would like to say kudos to u for getting your dad to switch, my kids planted the seed.
Unfortunately their friends may be buying them for them. Kids get a hold of analogs as well.
But yeah not cool at all

 

[euforeik]

The main reason for me to get an e-cigarette was to get off the "other" stuff and well analogs. Getting it was easy when I was around my friends. I understand from the standpoint of getting them off the other things and getting them off cigarettes but my main concern was the fact that most of the people that buy them that are underage do it because they want to "fit in." I have seen many different standpoints on this forum. Some thing starting to vape instead of smoking at all is great, while others frown upon it. Doesn't it bother anyone to think of a 13 year old smoking a vape?

 

[candik]

Hello and Congratulations on making a switch to vaping!!!! Bigger congratulations on being educated on the alternatives and pro-active with your health and the health of those around you and mature enough to take action!! Pretty dang impressive I must admit! Can't say that's the norm with the people in your age group. Well, okay, can't say that's the norm (present company excluded!) of most people I encounter.

Ok, now to the nitty gritty. I see underage activity all the time. Anyone willing to open their eyes can see it. It's not exclusive to this country or that country but rather a worldwide thing. I don't see a realistic way to stop it since where there's a will, there's a way. Unless parents or other adults are willing to become full time nanny/babysitters with nothing to do and no other priority than hovering over the minors in our area, well... it's just not gonna happen. I think kids are going to do what they learn is cool or acceptable. Whether it's something they learn from their parents or their peers doesn't matter. If it's cool, it's desirable and doable. It's just not always ok. We can regulate with laws and rules and monitoring but even though the intent is there, the effectiveness is not. Vaping is absolutely better healthwise than smoking. There's no doubt in my mind. If I were unable to prevent it from even getting to this point, in a choice between my child smoking a cigarette or vaping, vaping wins hands down. I would buy vaping equipment even though I would never consider buying cigarettes.

I have as yet to see anyone underage vaping around here, but I have seen underage smoking.

 

[RosaJ]

The main reason for me to get an e-cigarette was to get off the "other" stuff and well analogs. Getting it was easy when I was around my friends. I understand from the standpoint of getting them off the other things and getting them off cigarettes but my main concern was the fact that most of the people that buy them that are underage do it because they want to "fit in." I have seen many different standpoints on this forum. Some thing starting to vape instead of smoking at all is great, while others frown upon it. Doesn't it bother anyone to think of a 13 year old smoking a vape?

My question is: How often does it happen? How many 13 year olds have you seen vaping? How many 13 year olds have the money to buy the set up? Or, is this a hypothetical question?

I've only come across one other vaper in the 15 months I've been vaping and that was an adult driving his car at night. All I saw was the tell tale led on his ecig.

Sorry, but I don't see it as a looming issue in the very near future. However, I hope that in 20 years from now minors will be buying ecigs instead of cigarettes. If they're at 0 nicotine, it's less harmful than buying a double shot mocha frapucino at Starbucks.

 

[euforeik]

I know personally more than 4 underage vapers. The thing they do is get anyone over 18 to buy them a starter set up. So the most they would spend is about $50. I guess it's really just bad decisions on these little kids. I just hope it doesn't make vaping something really frowned upon in the future.

 

[RosaJ]

I know personally more than 4 underage vapers. The thing they do is get anyone over 18 to buy them a starter set up. So the most they would spend is about $50. I guess it's really just bad decisions on these little kids. I just hope it doesn't make vaping something really frowned upon in the future.

So they're acquiring the vape gear illegaly the same way they acquired cigarettes before. How would you prevent that? And, why ban the sale of ecigs and still allow the sale of cigarettes?

And I guarantee you that cigarettes will continue to be sold for a looong time. Too much a source of revenue for the government.

 

[patkin]

Very frankly.... the nanny state wants condoms handed out to teens using the argument that they're going to have sex no matter how they've been educated against it. But, when it comes to ecigs if they're going to smoke anyway..... oh, noooooooo.... can't have that! Both smoking and ecigs have been spun into moral issues via ANTZ. And any unprejudiced/thinking person can see that. They use it for self-righteous moral superiority much the same way they have accused certain religious groups of doing. Do I think the underage should vape? No. However, if that teen is deciding which they're going to do anyway. Yes. Just like I would advise using a condom if they're going to be sexually active anyway.

 

[Vapoor eyes er]

Yep the Vendor that I use and has stalls on weekends ALWAYS asks for ID. Minors manage to get a hold of cigarettes and booze and we can try all we want but it'll always be that way...I'm sure at that age we were all lil' and MANY times I've read here of 40 yrs+ vapers starting to smoke in their early teens. Although both vaping and smoking are addiction related I really don't see them as being the same esp for ANYONE addicted to analogs.

I congratulate you on switching to vaping! You mention you're 18 and so are your friends who have taken up vaping. When did you start smoking cigarettes? Chances are you were a minor when you did, right? So how did you get the cigarettes? Did stores sell them to you? Did you have a fake id? Please don't take this as an attack on you.

All the vendors that I've ever purchased from have always insisted on not selling ecigs to minors. I did come across a 17 year old smoker who came into the vape shop I frequent with his mother and his mother bought him a starter set up. I see nothing wrong with that as the young man was heavily into smoking and his mother wanted something better for his health. What is wrong with that?

 

[Renolizzie]

While I can certainly see why people want to protect young people from doing many things, I wonder about this trend in our society to make everything on the planet illegal for people under 18 years of age or even 21 years of age. Geez, I was married when I was 17.

You can fight and die for your country at 18 but you aren't mature enough to have a beer?

Like a lot of different things, some kids can probably get a hold of e cigs. I didn't start smoking to look cool. I started smoking to deal with stress. I was in my twenties and a friend urged me to try cigarettes. Turns out I liked them.

Many of my friends were having sex, smoking various items and cigarettes and drinking long before the age of 21. I'm not feeling overly sad about the whole thing. Out of all of it, nicotine was probably the safest At least nicotine is a lot less addictive than actual cigarettes.

 

[Ref Minor]

Whilst I am not sure kids should have e-cigs at all really, something doesn't sit right with it for me, I could use the argument hat I can have a whisky and coke and that's ok and a kid can have a coke and that's also ok.